/ president's address. 19 



relation with the war. It surely cannot be true that we have 

 such a vast surplus of food that it is unnecessary to take tliese 

 steps to preserve this wheat against loss. Further, it cannot be 

 true that we know so much of the insects and fungi in this wheat 

 that further knowledge is unnecessary. I believe that the De- 

 fence Department has already at its disposal the services of those 

 who can advise it what to do when the knowledge of what insects 

 and fungi are present has been obtained. Ma)^ I invite all the 

 Members of this Society to assist in making these facts known? 



I have often thought that the scientific experts in the State 

 and Federal services do not make the authorities, under whojn 

 they work, aware of what a small amount of scientific investiga- 

 tion can be done by one person. We have a State Entomologist 

 who sets us an example of industry and devotion in the way in 

 which his whole life is dedicated to the study of insect life. I 

 am, however, amazed at the range over which his advice is sought. 

 He is expected to report and advise on matters in a few weeks 

 when months of research would probably only serve to reveal 

 the nature of the problem to be attacked. Even if we had 

 twenty entomologists as learned as Mr. Froggatt in the ways of 

 insects, we would be aware that all the twenty naturalists could 

 go on working for many years without exhausting the possibilities 

 of research in insect life. Does not the work done by all the 

 entomologists of the world in the century that has passed onl}^ 

 serve to show us what remains to be done? Are we not all like 

 Newton, when he remarked that he was as an infant playing 

 with a few grains of sand with the whole ocean before him yet 

 to be explored? 



The community has little appreciation for the laljours of those 

 seeking the advancement of knowledge of Natural Phenomena. 

 The man who could supply a pound of tea to every person on 

 this globe of ours would gain an immense fortune. Lister, who 

 did something to diminish the suffering of every living person, 

 and who was, perhaps, better rewarded than most other scientific 

 men for his discoveries, had much less reward than any really 

 successful man of business. Have not scientists some right 

 to ask more encouragement from their fellows? Most of us 



